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1. Südasien 1.1. Grundlagen und Forschung Die Anwendung des Begriffs K. im Zusammenhang mit der südasiat. Gesellschaftsordnung datiert auf das frühe 16. Jh. zurück, als portug. Indienreisende für bestimmte Gruppen der indigenen Bevölkerung den aus dem Spanischen entlehnten Terminus casta (von lat. castus, »rein«, »keusch«) benutzten [3] (s. u. 2.1.). Man wandte ihn zunächst noch relativ undifferenziert auf eine Vielzahl religiös, ethnisch oder sozial unterschiedener Großgruppen an. Der exklusive Bezug zur ind. (und insbes. hinduistischen) …

Although other Hindu sects and organizations may be more important today, it is no exaggeration to say that the Arya Samaj (lit. Society of the Nobles) was the most influential Hindu reform body during much of the 20th century. The foundation of the Arya Samaj by the Gujarati Brahman Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883) goes back to the last quarter of the 19th century, a period when Hinduism had to face manifold challenges and repeated attempts to reform Hindu traditions and practices through the founding of a variety of samājs (societies) and sabhās (associations). The unusually fa…

1. South Asia 1.1. Principles and research The use of the term caste in relation to the social order of South Asia dates back to the early 16th century, when Portuguese travelers to India began to use the word casta (from Latin castus, ‘pure,’ ‘chaste’), borrowed from Spanish, to refer to certain groups within the indigenous population [3] (see below, 2.1.). At first, it was applied relatively indiscriminately to a wide range of large groups differentiated by religion, ethnicity, or social status. Its exclusive application to the Indian (especially H…

[German Version] I. History – II. Religious Doctrine – III. Society – IV. Hinduism and Christianity I. History 1. Historical outline Hinduism, from Persian hindu (“one who lives by the Indus River”), is a collective term for those religious communities and their systems that formed on the south Asian subcontinent (India: I) or spread there, whose social organization is characterized by particular rules of lineage and marriage (the so-called caste system, see III, 2 below; Caste: I), who primarily uphold Vedic-Brahm…